[ SECRET POST #6035 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #6035 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 44 secrets from Secret Submission Post #863.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

Comment Secret OP

[(Anonymous)]

I probably should have worded this a bit better but.. let me just say that I'm not intending to say people who don't like OCs are wrong somehow. And yes a lot of OCs are written by inexperienced authors so it makes sense a lot of them aren't the best in fanfic. Heck when I read fanfic nowadays I stick to older authors who've been writing a long time

But.. I often see this line used in a way to suggest the concept of OCs in fanfic is bad writing or "doing fanfic wrong" since "oh I've seen this done this many times badly I've never seen it done well" . Not gonna lie yeah that annoys me a little . I feel like it's faulty to imply the concept is "always bad fanfic" when a lot of times people's perspective is changed after so many bad experiences that every time they notice an OC after, they expect the worst.

Imagine you really like a canon character from a show or book or something. They're your favorite. You hear someone else describing a character with a bunch of things they find "mary sueish" and bad writing and you don't really disagree until you realize that they're describing your favorite character. You want to tell them "Sure that all sounds bad but in context.." .. But that's how they saw the character from their own perspective.. But in your perspective it works.

Neither of you are wrong actually! You know that you like and don't , and they know what they like and don't . But you have different perspectives on the same character for different reasons or experiences.

I just feel like the descriptors used there to describe OC above "shitty and annoying" are subjective. badly written? well something that's badly written in an OC can also work in a canon character for you.

I didn't mean to discredit anyone's opinion or say they're wrong or anything. Just that you can't really judge a whole concept in it's entirety like I feel like a lot of people do.

I apologize for my bad wording.

Re: Comment Secret OP

[(Anonymous)]

I usually only see the criticisms for when the OC is the main character or main love interest of the fic. Otherwise generally people seem okay with OCs but then again fandom is vast and varied and we may have encountered totally different views.

Re: Comment Secret OP

[(Anonymous)]

I absolutely agree with you, and I got what you were saying! Like, yeah, there are going to be un-enjoyable fanfics with OCs, especially when they do something that it makes sense for a canon character to get to do! But there are also going to be OCs that enhance the fic they're in because they fill a niche a canon character can't fill.


Like... if I'm reading a long, plotty fic, I expect OCs to show up! I expect to see Sam and Dean Winchester save an OC from a monster, and I *want* to find that OC enjoyable to read about while they're 'onscreen'! And if they have some agency and help in the fight, that can make them feel more well-rounded/enjoyable. BUT, I don't expect to see them pull off something I expect Sam or Dean to do-- maybe they can fight, but they should still need the characters I'm there for to win the fight.

Re: Comment Secret OP

[(Anonymous)]

I can totally see what you're saying. For me, it depends on the canon. Like the above commenter, I would expect OCs to come up in some settings and would write them in my own fic. In others, I prefer the focus to stay on canon characters and feel that OCs are more intrusive. Of course the point is sometimes to "intrude" a new character with another point of view and change things up, but it's not what I would write or read for canons where I am only interested in the canon cast. Without judgement, the power fantasy and love interest stories where the OC outshines the canon cast are also just not my thing, no matter how well written they are. I do sometimes enjoy OCs that complement the canon cast and reveal different layers to the character dynamics.

Re: Comment Secret OP

[(Anonymous)]

But as you said - a lot of people avoid fics with prominent OCs because they've overwhelmingly had bad experiences with the ones they tried.

In all candor, the idea is enticing. Just like it's hard to resist as a writer, it's hard to resist as an inexperienced fanfic reader. The characters in a canon nearly always have such a mix of desirable and difficult traits that if adding non-canon characters and making the story go where your heart's pulling it were easy (or even moderately successful), I think very few people would avoid writing them. But in general, it doesn't work, and the result is all the more disappointing because the expectation was high. You know? And on top of that, the writer tends to look at their fic with prominent OCs and feel like it at least sort of came together in a lot of cases where it's a thoroughly unsatisfying story for any anyone who isn't them.

Re: Comment Secret OP

[(Anonymous)]

SA

I realized as I wrote this that I actually would love it if stories with prominent OCs worked better more often. Because the very few fics I can think of that actually made the new characters feel like they belonged and were believable and should be interacting with the cast this much, for some reason, were also doing stuff that canon could not do. There were no characters in the original that could be repurposed to fill the niche because there just were none filling those roles, period. I just have no idea how to get from here (IME, most stories that try to do this fail) to there.

I'm going to think about this more.